A Critical Evaluation of the Revised MA Program for English Language Teaching: A Qualitative Study

English language teaching in MA level, which is considered as one of the most popular majors in the Iranian academic setting with a five-decade life, has experienced three programs so far. The latest program, which was adopted in 2016 by the Council for the Transformation and Promotion of the Humanities, became operational from the beginning of the 2017-18 academic year, after three decades of the implementation of the second program, and is supposed to be revised after five years. Due to the importance of such a belated change in the program, this article attempts to critically examine and analyze the views of twelve faculty members working in state universities, which are operating this field of study, through participatory model. The findings, which have been analyzed in three categories including a) course titles, b) syllabi, and c) resources, indicate that in addition to the significant advantages of the new program in terms of attention to new subjects, revision of goals and syllabi, more attention to the Iranian context, etc., there are still noticeable shortcomings such as course titles, the selection and presentation of the syllabi as well as the suggested resources. Based on the findings, the authors conclude that the micro and macro goals of the program will not be achieved without due attention to such weaknesses. Finally, some suggestions have been proposed regarding the revision and improvement of the program.